Twisted Lab RotoGrid

Twisted Lab RotoGrid: Slot Overview

Do you think, in another life, some of the boffins making a living crafting online slots would be poring over forbidden tomes in search of esoteric knowledge to conduct experiments that threaten the fabric of the very universe? Maybe not, but the 'mad scientist' trope is a popular one when it comes to slot design and slot maker Hacksaw Gaming has come up with an eccentric example. The title is Twisted Lab RotoGrid, and it has turned out to be an ideal place for the studio to combine some of its favourite things, namely, quirky characters, spreading wild multipliers, and a fiendish hold 'n win/respin round.

A twisted lab well and truly is the setting for the game. In this cracked world, players are introduced to Mr Melker and his helper Pat the Rat, and the mix of Hacksaw Gaming's past endeavours on display in Twisted Lab RotoGrid is nicely summed up in verse: "Five drops of Canny, Three spills of Crew, Slight hint of madness, Yummy Hacksaw brew!" You get the impression the team had a laugh or two when it set about making Twisted Lab RotoGrid, employing the neon on dark punk design it has used to excellent effect in the past in games like Chaos Crew 2 and to excellently twisted effect here.

If you get motion sickness, then Twisted Lab RotoGrid's rotating 5x5 gaming panel might not be the best thing to stare at for long periods of time. If motion isn't an issue, then keeping an eye glued to its 19 paylines is one way of tracking winning combinations, no matter the movement. Available in various RTP configurations, 96.3% is the maximum return value, and 4 out of 5, or medium-high, is the volatility rating. Bets of 10 c to $/€100 are up for selection, as are five bonus buy choices.

Twisted Lab RotoGrid's pay symbols consist of 8 different objects, kinda fitting, kinda random. They are a feather, leaves, an egg, a mushroom, a piece of tentacle, an eyeball, teeth, and a brain, paying 0.5 to 5 times the bet for a five-of-a-kind winning combination. Beaker symbols are wild, more on them in a moment, meaning they can substitute for any regular pay symbol and are worth 10x the bet for 5 OAK.

Twisted Lab RotoGrid: Slot Features

First, let's introduce the new RotoGrid symbol, which may land charged with 1 to 4 ninety-degree clockwise rotations. Each charge causes the whole grid to rotate by 90 degrees, creating additional opportunities to achieve payline wins. Wins from the initial drop are awarded before the RotoGrid activates.

Oozing Beakers

When the RotoGrid rotates the grid, any Oozing Beakers on the reels break and spill their contents to the bottom of the grid. All positions covered by Ooze become wild, substituting for all paying symbols. Purple Oozing Beakers do not contain multiplier values. The possible values for Blue Oozing Beakers are additive values of x2 to x100. The possible values for Pink Oozing Beakers are multiplying values of x2 to x10. If Ooze covers previous Ooze, the multiplier values are added together and applied to all Oozing positions in the reel. If Blue Ooze combines with Pink Ooze, their multipliers are added together, and the resulting Green Ooze multiplier will become multiplying. If Blue or Pink Ooze is combined with Purple Ooze, the multiplier from the Pink or Blue Ooze is applied to the whole combined Ooze area on that reel.

Unleash the Ooze! Bonus Feature

This feature is activated in the base game by landing 3 FS scatter symbols. Starting with 10 free spins, during this bonus, there is an increased chance of landing RotoGrid symbols, FS symbols, and Oozing Beakers.

The Twist of the Twisted! Bonus Feature

This feature is activated by landing 4 FS scatter symbols in the base game, awarding 3 initial lives. For this bonus, the game transforms so only Blue Twisters, Pink Twisters, Collect symbols, RotoGrid symbols, and non-paying symbols appear. Four multiplier values are displayed on each Twister. The value shown at the top is the current value of the multiplier. When the grid rotates, the value that moves to the top of the symbol becomes the new current value. Possible values for the Blue Twister are 1x to 1,000x. The possible values for the Pink Twister are 1x to 1,000x, or x2 to x10.

Blue Twisters rotate with the grid when the RotoGrid symbol lands. Pink Twisters rotate on each new free spin and rotate an extra time with the grid if a RotoGrid lands. Throughout the bonus, there is a chance of landing the Collector symbol. When the Collector lands, it activates at the end of a spin, collecting the multiplier value of all Twisters on the grid. All Twisters remain on the grid till the feature ends or until they are collected.

The 3 lives are reset each time new Twisters or Collectors land. Each life represents one spin. At the end of the feature, the current Twister and Collector symbol values on the grid are added or multiplied together depending on the value of the symbol. Values are added or multiplied from top to bottom, one reel at a time, left to right. If the first symbol is a multiplying multiplier, it is treated as an adding multiplier instead.

Bonus Buy

Twisted Lab RotoGrid displays these 5 choices at its bonus buy menu. All are rated very highly volatile.

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 3x the bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. RTP 96.28%.
• RotoGrid FeatureSpins - 50x the bet, each spin guarantees at least 1 Blue Oozing Beaker and 1 RotoGrid symbol land. Purple Oozing Beakers do not appear in this mode. RTP 96.32%.
• Oozing RotoGrid FeatureSpins - 75x the bet, each spin guarantees at least 2 Blue Oozing Beakers and 1 RotoGrid symbol land. Purple Oozing Beakers do not appear in this mode. RTP 96.27%.
• Unleash the Ooze! - 100x the bet. RTP 96.29%.
• The Twist of the Twisted - 200x the bet. RTP 96.33%.

Twisted Lab RotoGrid: Slot Verdict

Anyone following Hacksaw Gaming's work should be well aware of the studio's fondness for creating spreading wild multipliers, as has been seen on numerous occasions in the past. Examples abound in slots like Cursed Seas et al. So prevalent is the use of this sort of feature it can feel a little passé at times. However, Hacksaw Gaming is a creative team, no doubt there, and they are more than adept at reworking the feature in highly creative ways. For Twisted Lab RotoGrid, the highly creative way is conducted in a two-pronged pincer-like manoeuvre - inventive theme and inventive innovations.

As part of the theme, Twisted Lab RotoGrid exhibits Hacksaw Gaming's other fondness for enlivening its slots with quirky characters. From buddy slots featuring Canny the Can and pals to fight slots like Fist of Destruction to the dance-off Feel the Beat, gamblers are often accompanied by on-screen entities when playing one of the studio's releases, and so it is in Twisted Lab RotoGrid. What's cool is the studio hasn't just come up with an eccentric game world for the lols but integrated many of the features perfectly within it. Examples include the innovative RotoGrid rotation device and Oozing Beakers, which break to spread goodness all over the grid. Having several Beakers oozing into each other as the grid rotates, generating consecutive wins can be really swell. It is clever stuff, bringing together many elements Hacksaw Gaming excels at.

Technically potent stuff as well, as attested to by a 15,000x the bet max win that is achievable in all game modes. Sometimes, it is possible to play a Hacksaw Gaming slot and, despite the high quality, get the feeling the studio might have been able to design it with one arm tied behind their backs, so to speak. At other times, and Twisted Lab RotoGrid is one of them, we're reminded of just what a wildly creative bunch they are.